USA > Indiana > Allen County > Fort Wayne > The pictorial history of Fort Wayne, Indiana : a review of two centuries of occupation of the region about the head of the Maumee River, Vol. I > Part 79
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Mr. Edgerton, immediately upon the establishment of the town site, erected two very large sawmills for the reduction of the timber on his estate, and in addition to this built an extensive stave factory, all of which did tremendous execution for two or three years, when a disastrous fire destroyed them. They were a total loss. Before it was possible to recover from this setback, and rebuild, the late summer of 1871 had come, and with it the forest fires which followed the drouth of the season. Mr. Edgerton's magnificent wooded estate was a prey to 'one of these fires, the larger part of it being laid waste in a conflagration which raged for weeks. It is small wonder that the village of Woodburn languished, and by 1874 had become a wilderness of weeds and wildflowers, with the reputation of being a snake farm beside. The land, described as swampy, was not naturally swamp, for its slope toward the river was well defined and quite sufficient for drainage until the building of the canal and railroad beds, with their high embankments, shut off the territory to the south from its natural access to the river. The land thus made soft allowed many trees to fall, adding to the difficulty, and the culverts of the railroad were insufficient for the escape of the water which was thus thrown back to stagnate and impede develop- ment. A little disaster looks great to a little estate. Here was a great estate and a disaster to match it. Years rolled away, but the little Wabash station survived, and the plat of Woodburn did not perish with the fire. Not like Phoenix from the ashes was Wood-
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burn's rise, indeed. That has been a long, slow upward climb. The subjugation of the land began, of necessity, with extensive ditching operations, under which the district groaned for years. It is, of course, the history of all such public works, that the cost is ex- cessive beyond any necessity, and the burden seems more grievous because of this. But, ruinously heavy as it seemed, it has reclaimed an unexcelled farming district and created wealth in manifold return for the outlay. The ditch system by which this was accomplished is a comprehensive one, embracing the famous "Edgerton State Line Ditch," dredged along the state line, which was the first to be surveyed; and others, tributary to it or separate, followed-the "Edgerton," the "Edgerton and Carson," etc.
About 1890, Edward Edgerton, Mr. Edgerton's oldest son, a retired naval officer, came to Woodburn, and undertook the manage- ment of the estate, surveying, platting and selling land, both in village and farms, a business in which his brother, Clement P. Edger- ton of Fort Wayne, assisted. The result of this was a new wave of colonization, more commercial in its aspect than those pioneer settle- ments were, and certainly more swift in results. A sale aggregating some thousands of acres, including some village property, was made in one deal, the purchasing colony being groups of Amish and Men- nonite farmers from Berne and elsewhere. This was in 1894, and within a short time another group from the vicinity of Archibald, Ohio, contracted for eighteen farms in a single day. The village of Woodburn, for years a scattered collection of strictly utilitarian houses, used chiefly for the accommodation of ditch laborers, began to wear a new aspect. Two grain elevators were put up in 1894 and 1895 by the "Woodburn Milling and Elevator Company," and the "Woodburn Lumber Company" opened a yard. In but little over twenty years since then the isolated railway station has for- gotten the doleful days of its discouragement in the almost spectacu- lar development of the town. Today the little city has a background of fine farms with up-to-date buildings, the church edifices of its distinguishing denominations and several manufacturing plants. The town itself is well built up with neat and prosperous looking homes, is well lighted at night by means of gas lamps, cement side- walks lead in all directions, and the town is crossed in both direc- tions by excellent county roads which are sub-named "streets" within the village limits. Four churches flourish in Woodburn, the Mennonite, or Amish, which was the first to be built; the Methodist Episcopal, a neat frame chapel; the German Lutheran, also frame, with a large parochial school; and the "Missionary" church, which was opened with a view to making a church home for all inhabitants of Woodburn who belonged outside the denominations previously mentioned. This church is built of cement blocks and serves its avowed purpose well. Electric light is available for private use in Woodburn, the current coming from Hicksville.
The retail business of the village is quite broad, as befits the stirring activity of the community. Drygoods and groceries are dis- pensed by J. A. Eby and Company, H. H. Brenneke and the People's Hardware company, which sells almost every known commodity under the term "general merchandise." The Woodburn Hardware company, J. Neuenschwander, proprietor, includes carriages and
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supplies in its stock. Two garages, one of which carries a sales de- partment, are kept by Paul Augspurger, and the Goldsmith Brothers. The Fuelling Drugstore also carries wall paper, and the E. G. Perry bakery operates a lunch room in connection with its business. This, with the restaurant of Lewis Gale, takes the place of the Home- stead hotel, recently closed. The blacksmiths and general tinners are O. D. Schepelmann, and the Kellers; and John Wright keeps a livery, feed and sales stable. Tremp and Applegate are grocers ; and R. M. Curran, from New Haven, jeweler, optician and watch- maker, divides the week with Woodburn. There is a cream depot, a weekly "News," and a moving picture theatre; a volunteer fire department, but no waterworks as yet-only wells; and a citizens' band which dispenses music every Saturday evening during the warm season, from the band stand near the bank building. The bank building is the pride of Woodburn, and surpasses the bank quarters of any other town in Allen county outside of Fort Wayne. August Brenneke is president, Austin Augspurger vice-president, and John R. Yaggy the cashier and manager. Mr. Yaggy is one of a Springfield township family from near Grabill. The Blue Cast Mineral Springs Sanitarium is about a mile and a half north of Woodburn,-which is proud to call itself a dry town.
The township high school (commissioned) is located in Wood- burn, and in 1916 had an enrollment of twenty-nine pupils, with six in the graduating class of June of that year. Domestic science and manual training departments are maintained and excellent work is done in every branch. The total school enumeration of Maumee township is 467, and of these 293 are enrolled in the public schools, while 96 attend parochial schools. The seven public school buildings are valued at thirty thousand dollars, and eleven teachers are em- ployed at an expense of $3,633.50 for grade schools and $2,185.00 for high school, which with upkeep expenses brings the per capita cost of education to $16.09 for grade pupils, and $80.75 for high school students. Fourteen pupils graduated from the common schools last June. The average attendance was two hundred and sixty-four for each of the days taught. The Maumee library is small but growing.
The health of Woodburn is in the charge of two wideawake physicians, Dr. A. G. Lueders and Dr. Edward Moser. The postoffice serves three rural routes.
Lake Township
Lake township is situated directly west of Washington, between Aboite on the south and Eel River on the north. Its name is derived from the presence, within its borders, of the largest lake in the county. This lake, a really beautiful little sheet of water, has passed among many by the title "Mud," a misnomer so far as the lake itself goes, and probably bestowed on account of the marshy approach. It also went into several maps as "Hull's" lake, possibly from the fact that the inlet to it rises near the place where the Hulls settled in Eel River township, or from some incident of early days. The lake is peculiarly situated, and a wild seclusion is characteristic of the locality, notwithstanding an effort made in recent years to
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bring it into prominence as a resort. The land containing the feature was purchased some twenty years ago by Charles Everett, who came from Hicksville, and who contemplated the building of an electric railroad out to the lake and the conversion of the tract into a pleasure park. From Everett's hands the property passed to Mr. Henry M. Williams, who has parked the woods and improved the locality in many ways, hoping to realize the same dream. There is a strange charm about this half hidden body of water, clear, still, and said to be deadly cold. The inlet, forever pouring water into it, while no outlet exists above ground, adds the erie fascination of mystery. The woods of the vicinity of the lake are remarkable for the variety of the trees, many kinds being found here which have become extremely rare. The lake has long been known as Lake Everett.
Much of Lake township is comprised in the wide marshy prairie, which has now been drained, but seems once to have been the course of some great glacial stream, which in subsiding left here and there an island, or a skirting bluff. The Aboite river rises in Lake town- ship. Extensive under-draining was necessary to farming nearly everywhere, but the soil, a clay, is of very productive quality.
The story of Lake is a sort of running narrative of comings and goings, interspersing a steady stream of quiet and determined settlers, and is not marked with any striking events. The vanguard of civilization in this district was composed of James Hinton, John Ross, William Grayless, George Slagle, Samuel Caffrey, James Pringle, Jacob Pearson and Clement Ryan, all of whom arrived, bringing their families, in 1834.
James Hinton was from Ohio. He chose a tract on the Goshen road, in the northeastern part, and cleared and improved it, selling with the intention of buying a new tract, but he died about a month later. John Ross settled in the same neighborhood, enjoying a much longer lease of life, however. William Grayless and George Slagle settled in section five. Samuel Caffrey chose a place on the Goshen road and was a citizen of Lake for twenty-five years. James Pringle settled in section three, but after five years moved on to Whitley county. These Goshen road settlers were without doubt the "neigh- bors on the Goshen road" who helped Adam Hull cut the first road in Eel River from Heller's Corners east to the township line, an act whereby a township line was shown to be no barrier to co-operation. These neighbors were comrades in arms, when the arms were woods- men's axes.
Jacob Pearson stayed on the site he had chosen in section thir- teen, for eleven years, when Iowa beckoned him hence. Samuel Caffrey went to Iowa from Lake township, also, at the end of a quarter of a century in Lake. John McClure, a native of South Carolina, came early in 1835, located in the western part, about one mile south of Hull's lake. Mr. McClure cleared his tract and culti- vated the farm land thus laid bare for twenty years, when Missouri lured him westward. His son-in-law, Samson Pierson, who came on from Ohio in 1835, settled near McClure, and during his stay in Lake was a very active citizen, enterprising and progressive. He platted a village on the plank road near its crossing of the line of sections sixteen and seventeen, at an early date, naming it Pierson. It did
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not develop, however, and was abandoned when the Piersons went west to Iowa. In the spring of 1836 Francis Sweet brought his family from Washington county, Tennessee, and "entered" a forty acre tract of woodland in this vicinity, May 24th. Mr. Sweet, how- ever, did not become a resident of Lake township for eight years, during which he worked as a carpenter in Fort Wayne. When he returned to his tract in 1844, he "entered" more than land. He filled every office in the township during his career, serving as Justice for fifteen years consecutively. Other arrivals of 1836 were two men from Virginia, both with families, John Anderson and James W. Watson, who had already reached their prime at the date of their emigration. Their quality as citizens was unimpeach- able, and their work in Lake township left fine farmns which strang- ers afterward tilled, for Mr. Anderson died in 1855, and James Watson moved to Whitley county. Joshua Goheene came to Lake in 1836, alone, to prepare for the coming of his family by making a clearing and building a cabin for them to live in. Mr. Goheene was a native of Pennsylvania, and his wife, of Maryland. He was a man of great energy, and rose to prominence in the affairs of the township. He died in 1874, and Mrs. Goheene in 1878, their son William inheriting the farm. Some of the others who came before 1840 were John Savage, who developed a good farm but sold out and moved to Missouri; Joseph Taylor, who undertook a clearing in 1837, and farmed it until 1855, when he, too, took Missouri fever ; and William Caster, John F. Gerding and Frederick Reed, all of whom were early settlers who sustained worthy parts in the up- building of the township.
The first road, the Goshen, had been surveyed through the town- ship in 1830, in advance of the settlement, which was greatly facili- tated by it. The Yellow River road was the second to be undertaken, and it was surveyed in 1836 by R. J. Dawson, along the south line of the township. In October, 1836, a county road was surveyed by S. M. Black, from Raccoon village to Cracow (or "Kraco"), the town that was never built.
The house of William Grayless was opened for the religious service held in the township in 1834, under the ministration of Rev. Mr. Black, of the Methodist church. Meetings were held at this house at intervals for a number of years. William Caster set out the first orchard of the settlement in 1836, the trees coming from the nursery of "Johnny Appleseed" in Washington township. On the last Saturday in May, 1837, the first township election was held, at the house of John McClure, who was election inspector by ap- pointment. Mr. McClure's son, Eli, was elected township treasurer and clerk, Samuel and James Pringle, justices, and William Caster, constable. The following winter, the McClure home was the scene of the first township wedding, when Miss Mary Mangan became the bride of John Savage. The first postoffice in Lake was established at the house of John Crawford, who lived about one and a half miles north of Arcola. It was given the popular name of "Taw- Taw" postoffice, in memory of an old Indian chief of that vicinity. Mr. Crawford, who was the postmaster, resigned at the end of two years, and Francis Sweet was appointed to succeed him. Mr. Sweet took the office home with him, and from then until 1863 he fulfilled
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the duties incumbent upon him, acting as mail carrier also after the advent of the Pittsburg railroad. When he resigned, the office was removed to Arcola, which in 1866 had sprung up on the railroad. In the early days being a postmaster meant very little remuneration for the shouldering of a heavy responsibility, which often incurred no little self-sacrifice. To the names and memory of all early post- masters, therefore, give all honor due.
The first mill built in Lake was a steam saw mill, which was erected in 1849 by the "Plank Road Company," at a point near Samson Pierson's proposed village. This saw mill, or the site on which it was built, became the property of A. H. and O. D. Holt, who conducted it as a planing mill, but in the meantime, it had been first purchased from the company by William Thorpe, in 1850, and the first "general store" of the township started there. It was a good store, too, and set an example which was followed by J. L. Peabody, who built the second saw mill, located on the Yellow River road near the site of the future Arcola. Mr. Peabody's store was of later date, however, as it was not opened until 1866, about the same time as the platting of the new town.
The Peabody mill was bought in 1873 by Jacob Coulter and Philip Smith, and continued a prosperous career for another ten years. In its day it was the largest manufactory of hardwood lum- ber in the county. It employed many hands, and sent its products to the Pennsylvania Railroad Company, for car building, and to the Pacific coast, also exporting a fine grade to Scotland. The same firm maintained mills at Williams Station, Monmouth, Decatur and Maples. Only the disappearance of the timber from this district may account for the discontinuance of lumber milling.
The new town of Arcola, in these flourishing days of its exist- ence, was soon the center of attraction in the township, and, natu- rally, the center of trade. Arcola furnished a very solid type of "general store," and the firms which started with the town have maintained a foothold through all the vicissitudes of changing times and even of changing hands.
Edward Rockhill, who will be remembered as a pioneer of Wayne township, left a family two members of which came to Lake in 1851 and undertook the clearing of a new farm, working at the farm in the growing season and engaging in hunting and trapping for game and pelts during the winters. William returned to work- his mother's farm until an opening at Arcola drew him thither in 1872. He embarked at once in business, with a stock of general merchandise, and about the same time was appointed postmaster, an office which he filled for fourteen years. The stock of goods was sold, in 1888, to John Grosjean, but only in order that Mr. Rockhill might gain opportunity to tear down the building and build greater, after which the business was resumed upon a much larger scale. Victor Cavalier also kept a general store, which was bought in by Mr. Grosjean, who with his brother had begun the manufacture of drain tile in the village in 1885. James Baxter kept the 'smithy, and I. W. Herrold and John Blietschau supplied the shoe trade. The decade-perhaps more-just mentioned was the high tide of Arcola's importance, but it was a tide that has been slow in sub- siding, and left no particular wrecks in its wake. Like many a
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new town it has settled down to a steady gait, and is not likely to be taken off the Allen county map while anyone now living is able to read one. Yet the Arcola of today is quite different in aspect from that of a quarter of a century ago. The population is now about two hundred and fifty, and the manufacturing interests of its early days are reduced to the "Clay Products Company" and the Arcola Stave Company. It is, however, a pleasing village, a good country trade center, and the business conditions are decidedly healthy, as the Arcola State Bank gives evidence. The original stores of earlier days are now represented by their successors, the "M. F. Bellamy Grocery and General Merchandise" and the Diebold and Miller, general merchandise store, which derive a good trade; while the White Hardware Company and the Stouder Drug Company fill all local needs in those lines. Arcola has its own local telephone exchange, its independent postoffice, which serves one rural free delivery route, and there is a hotel-the Lawrence. D. D. Lawrence maintains a garage. The professions, which in 1880 were repre- sented by two resident physicians, Drs. H. C. McDowell and C. V. Gorrell, are now at the same status, with Dr. C. R. Baumgartner in regular practice and C. M. Glock in veterinary surgery.
Of religious bodies, the Baptists were the first to organize in Lake township, a class being formed in 1835 at the home of Joshua Goheene by the Rev. Mr. Gildersleeve. This group of Baptists all went to Eel River to church when the Baptists of that township built their first chapel. A large Baptist congregation was afterward organized and a church erected near Hadley Station, in the south- east corner of the township. The Methodists organized in 1849, with the assistance of the Rev. Mr. Palmer, at the house of William Gray- less. They built "Lake Chapel" five miles north of Arcola, west of Hull's lake, and attended service there until 1871, at which time the Methodists of Arcola, who had organized in 1867, built a church in the village which drew the Lake township Methodists southward. A "first Sunday school" was inaugurated in 1849 in a deserted log cabin on the farm of Azariah Julin, attended by twenty-five pupils, taught undenominationally until each church was able to take up that line of church work. The Free Will Baptists flourished for a while, but died out. St. Patrick's Catholic church is the outgrowth of early mission work by Father Julian Benoit, services being held at private houses, then at a little chapel built in 1866 by Father Madden, and later in the church edifice erected during the years following 1895, while Father Robert Pratt was pastor. A school
had been built in the previous decade, which is taught by the sister- hood of the Poor Handmaids. The past year it had an enrollment of forty pupils. The old chapel was used for many years as a hall for general parish purposes. St. Patrick's is clear of debt, and the mission at Pierceton is attended from the Arcola parish.
Arcola has not been reached by the interurban lines, but the Pennsylvania railroad is quite sufficient for its shipping and travel, supplemented by its excellent roadway connections. The largest of the seven public school buildings is situated in the village, con- taining two rooms, and employing two teachers. General township annals in regard to schools is not obtainable for this chapter, but probably no unique features could be presented if they were. The
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last school enumeration reported a total of three hundred and forty- four of legal age, of which number two hundred and twenty-six were enrolled in the public schools for the year 1915-6. Eight teachers are employed in the whole township, and eight thousand dollars is the estimated' value of the seven buildings. The school year is one hundred and sixty days, with an average attendance of one hundred and seventy-three daily for the year in question. Sal- aries amount to $4,096.00 and upkeep expenses to $731.91, bringing the cost of education in Lake township to $21.31 per capita. The libraries, small but growing, aggregated, June, 1916, six hundred and sixty volumes.
The citizens of Lake township have in general been of a stead- fast, yet enterprising, character, noted more for solid qualities than for those which make romantic reading. Doubtless they have made much more history than they have written down. Some few inci- dents of pioneer experience are extant which have more than a trace of interest in them to the student, at least, and doubtless to the present-day successors to the acres of the township. Thomas and Mary (Dugan) Tracy, both of Irish birth, came early enough to the forests of Lake to experience the dread of wolves at night, and to be familiar with the sight of an inquiring deer at the cabin window ; and it was a common thing for them to give night's shelter to the friendly Indians who were not yet departed. Their son, William Tracy, born 1837, has been a good citizen after them. Mrs. Thomas Tracy lived thirty years or more after the death of her husband, in 1861. John and Catherine (Shonchron) Gearin, natives of Ire- land, came to Lake in 1837, and their son Cornelius was born in the township May, 1843. The elder Gearins went west, to Oregon, but Cornelius remained in his native township. He served three years in the Civil War, and was engaged in the battles of Gettysburg, the Wilderness, Spottsylvania, Sheridan's raid, Petersburg, Winchester, Fisher Hill, Cedar Creek and the Five Forks. He was wounded at · the latter place, was sent to Thunderville Station, then to Petersburg and different hospitals, finally receiving an honorable discharge, after which he returned to his paternal acres and engaged in agri- cultural pursuits, in which he has been successful.
John Jones, born in Wales, the son of Benjamin and Sarah (Cadwallader) Jones, was a weaver by trade. He married Mary Humphreys, daughter of Edward and Ann, while in his native county, and his son Benjamin-named for the grandfather-was born and grew to manhood there. Grandmother Jones, a remark- able old lady whose eyesight till the day of her death was keen enough to need no spectacles, lived to the great age of ninety-five, only to meet the cruel fate of freezing to death. Benjamin, Jr., came to New York, U. S. A., in 1839, and worked at various pursuits in that city for four years. In the meantime, his father and family followed him over in 1841, and at Tarrytown they tarried until 1843, when they all migrated together to Lake township, Allen county, Indiana. Here they embarked in clearing and farming lands. Ben- jamin remained on the farm, his sisters marrying and living in Fort Wayne, where his brother John also went to work in the Wabash shops, after serving all through the Civil War. Benjamin (not until 1872) married Miss Sarah C. Carroll, and they had one daugh-
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